pigrabbitbear writes: "While the world waits for an asteroid large enough to destroy a city to graze the orbits of our television satellites, citizens of Central Russia were greeted early Friday morning by a more mortality-shaking kind of astronomical event: a giant meteorite exploding across the atmosphere in a spectacular fireball, brighter than the still-rising sun, blowing out windows and injuring as many as 400 people.

According to state-sponsored radio station The Voice of Russia, the meteor was allegedly intercepted by a missile salvo fired from an air defense facility at Urzhumka village near Chelyabinsk, "at an altitude of 20 kilometers." "Witnesses reported a sudden change in atmospheric pressure upon the impact that made their ears pop. The space object hit the ground with a tremendous crash that resembled thunder and earthquake, damaging houses in Chelyabinsk and cutting off communications, witnesses say."Link to Original Source